'Batgirl' Directors Blocked From Accessing Film Before Cancellation Announcement

The directors of the scrapped "Batgirl" movie, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, spoke out about the shocking move Warner Bros. did before the project's cancellation.

The filmmakers revealed they were blocked from accessing the film before the cancellation was announced.

In an exclusive interview with SKRIPT, El Arbi and Fallah detailed how they tried to obtain a copy of the film. But they couldn't access the project files before they learned about its cancellation.

"Adil called me and told me, 'Go Ahead! Shoot everything on your phone!' I went on the server ... And everything was blocked. There was no way to access the film," Fallah told the YouTube channel.

He then expressed regret for failing to keep the scenes they filmed with Batman for the canned project.

Michael Keaton was portraying Batman for the movie, a role he hadn't played for three decades since the 1989 "Batman" and 1992 "Batman Returns" by Tim Burton. It was unclear how Keaton would show up or get involved in the storyline featuring Leslie Grace as the titular heroine, as per Collider.

Speaking on how Warner Bros. relayed to them the decision, the directors said they were told: "It was not a talent problem from our part or the actress, or even the quality of the movie."

"They told us, it was a strategic change. A shifting in the management," El Arbi said before noting that Warner Bros. wanted to "save up some bucks" by scrapping the film.

Even before the interview, El Arbi and Fallah had expressed their disappointment and shock when they learned about the axing of "Batgirl."

"We are saddened and shocked by the news. We still can't believe it. As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while [the] film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves," they wrote on Instagram.

The DC feature originally had a working budget of $80 million. But it got a significant boost due to the COVID-19 protocols for filmmaking amid the pandemic.

Filming for "Batgirl" took place between November 2021 and March 2022 in Glasgow, Scotland. It was already in post-production when Warner Bros. announced its cancellation.

A top Hollywood source previously revealed that test screenings for audiences were done ahead of the film's release sometime this 2022. But due to the negative feedback from the viewers, the studio allegedly decided to cut its losses and run for the sake of DC's future.

A spokesperson for Warner Bros. did not comment when asked about the issue by different media outlets.